Shanghai - Chinese mining and trading group Sinosteel Corp. agreed to buy Zimasco Consolidated Enterprises Ltd, the holding company for Zimbabwe's largest ferrochrome producer, for an undisclosed amount, Sinosteel said. Zimasco produces 210,000 tonnes of high carbon ferrochrome annually, accounting for about 4 percent of global ferrochrome production, said its website. State-owned Sinosteel and Zimasco inked the deal on September 19, following preliminary agreements earlier this year, according to the Sinosteel website. "The deal will benefit the trade cooperation between the two countries, and help local economic development, create employment opportunities, and promote social stability in Zimbabwe," Sinosteel said in its announcement.

China's envoy to Darfur, Liu Guijin, said this month that Beijing was still sending humanitarian aid but had stopped providing development aid to Harare as currency revaluations and economic decline reduced returns from development projects. But the Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Yuan Nansheng, the following day denied Beijing had cut back on aid, saying it provided "all sorts of assistance to the Zimbabwean government and people, including loans, grants and food assistance besides humanitarian aid," according to the Xinhua news agency. Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most prosperous economies, faces chronic shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency, as well as unemployment over 80 percent and the highest inflation rate in the world of 6,600 percent. Sinosteel has been one of China's more proactive state-owned firms in investing overseas. It has invested in iron ore mining and exploration in Australia, plans to build a steel mill in India, has uranium exploration ventures in Australia and Niger and has entered a ferro-chrome joint venture with South Africa's Samancor Chrome